Malaysia Suffers Rp 881 Billion Loss Due to Gibran's Fraud, Says PM Anwar Ibrahim
Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has stated that Malaysia’s pension fund, Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP), has been affected by an alleged fraud case involving the Indonesian agritech startup, eFishery. According to Anwar, eFishery was found to have manipulated its financial reports, causing KWAP and several global investors within a consortium to suffer significant losses. The funds invested by KWAP in the company, founded by Gibran Huzaifah, reached nearly RM 200 million, or approximately Rp 881 billion.
‘The investment decision went through an evaluation and governance process based on the information available at the time, including the verification of financial reports by internationally recognised certified auditors,’ Anwar stated in a written response in the Malaysian Parliament. Anwar added that prior to the capital injection, the investor consortium, including KWAP, had conducted independent due diligence to ensure all information was valid.
Anwar emphasised that KWAP was not the only major financial institution caught in the scandal. Several global institutional investors and leading technology funds, including Temasek, SoftBank, 42XFund, and Northstar, also provided capital to eFishery. ‘However, the eFishery investment was a pre-planned fraud, and there was manipulation of financial reports by eFishery’s management,’ Anwar asserted.
In 2023, eFishery successfully secured US$ 200 million in Series D funding. From this total, KWAP contributed US$ 47.7 million (approximately RM 194.35 million). Anwar’s statement was in response to a query from Subang Member of Parliament, Wong Chen, regarding the accountability and oversight of the KWAP board of directors and senior management concerning this massive investment.
In response, Anwar confirmed that the investor consortium has pursued legal action to recover the invested funds. Furthermore, a thorough internal audit has been conducted and submitted to the KWAP board. ‘KWAP remains committed to managing civil servant pension funds transparently, ethically, and accountably. Improvements have been implemented to strengthen protection for future investments,’ Anwar concluded.
The financial engineering case involving the unicorn startup has reached the courts. Last April, the Bandung District Court sentenced the former CEO of eFishery, Gibrante Huzaifah, to nine years in prison on charges of financial report manipulation and money laundering. In addition to the prison sentence, Gibran was fined Rp 1 billion, with a subsidiary sentence of 190 days in prison. Two of his associates, Angga Hadrian Raditya and Andri Yadi, were also implicated in the scandal.
The fraudulent practices at eFishery were first uncovered through whistleblower reports and an independent investigation by FTI Consulting, which indicated revenue falsification of up to nearly US$ 600 million. Internal investigation reports from the Indonesian National Police (Bareskrim Polri) and media outlet DealStreetAsia in late 2024 confirmed systematic fund inflation carried out by top management since early 2024.